The Fourth Way and Esoteric Traditions
The inner work that leads to a connection to higher centers is individual and takes patience, struggle, and time. There are no shortcuts in this work because it follows natural laws. It is not a way that ends with a single revelatory experience. The achievement of this system is a regular connection with higher centers, and that requires a buildup of a particular energy, and that energy is subject to organic laws.
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On the walk to Angel Falls, when I am present to myself and can finally see, fascination and identification cease to exist, and a deep comprehension of a higher world arises.
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These, then, are five ways to work with a ‘negative’ situation: (1) to change the situation; (2) to change the machine’s reaction to the situation; (3) to separate from the situation; (4) to separate from oneself; and (5) to turn the focus of one’s attention toward something higher. They do not replace each other but rather build on one another.
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How does work in a Fourth Way school connect us to the Real World? Can we find a more real world? I first connected to the Fourth Way school at ‘Apollo’ twenty-two years ago. It was around this time that the teacher began to radiate his guidance widely again. We still work to explore the […]
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Can we always make a profit? Toward the end of In Search of the Miraculous, Ouspensky describes a newspaper reporter’s conversation with Gurdjieff at a train station. Gurdjieff made a number of enigmatic statements about business and the Russian Revolution. The reporter asked, “Don’t you make profits, too?” [Gurdjieff] smiled… and said with gravity: “We always make a […]
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Do we allow the reality of what is happening to force us into in a state of fear and instinctive desperation? Or do we use these difficult times to better understand that we are, in essence, spiritual beings?
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How do we use the highest parts of ourselves to work towards awakening, and rest when needed? Intellectual parts of centers need to work together for us to truly remember ourselves. The Four Lower Centers Fourth Way authors alert us to the fact that we have seven brains, rather than one. Two of them function in times […]
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How do our patterns of movement and sleep interact? Seminal Fourth Way authors G. Gurdjieff and P.D. Ouspensky describe how unnecessary movement and sleep–our old patterns–pose obstacles for one seeking consciousness. P.D. Ouspensky, from A Record of Meetings: The Role of the Moon in Mechanical Movement and Sleep At present all our movements depend on […]
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How do we work with sharing the light with others? The Wish to Prolong Presence The human machine is a wonderful invention. It is a machine that can produce consciousness. That consciousness has degrees. It can be closer or further away from what Gurdjieff and Ouspensky called the second state, or day-dream state. Some higher […]
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What, in fact, is Real? Mr. Gurdjieff assures us that in the conditions of ordinary life, we encounter our true selves only very rarely. It often occurs when presented with surprising or unusual circumstances. It is in these moments of presence, or self-remembering, that we connect with actual reality, that we are truly ourselves. Indeed, […]
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